


The Tipping Point

by Gigi_Sinclair



Category: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon character deaths, M/M, Post-TLJ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 17:04:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13171344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gigi_Sinclair/pseuds/Gigi_Sinclair
Summary: It's lonely at the top.





	The Tipping Point

Hux approaches him during the middle of a yet another long, boring shift. Ren has an office, but offices are for normal, boring officers. He tried to inhabit the throne room, at first, but that didn't feel right, so he sits on the command deck, watching. 

“We're on course to reach Isrolla Minor by 0900 ship's time, Supreme Leader,” Hux says, coming up beside him. Anxiety radiates off him in waves, even more than usual. Ren has found himself longing, of late, for their days of mutual contempt, when he and Hux had pure, unadulterated hatred for each other. Now, Hux is just another toadying peon. There's the occasional caustic remark, half mumbled under his breath, but other than that, Hux treats Ren the way they once treated Snoke: with deference, politeness, and fear. 

“Fine,” Ren grunts. 

Hux licks his lips, then glances around. There's no one within earshot, but still, he moves closer. “I know the truth, sir,” he says, and his words are nearly drowned out by the hammering of his heart, loud enough to echo in Ren's ears. Ren shakes his head, and the sound disappears. 

“What are you talking about?” 

Hux lifts his eyes and holds Ren's gaze. Only briefly, but Ren can't remember the last time he did even that. “I know what happened. Well,” he adds immediately, “not the details. But I know the girl didn't kill Snoke.” 

Panic grips Ren, like it's contagious. He hides it by slamming his fist against the arm of his chair, too hard. It sends a shock of pain up his wrist and arm. That's a good thing. It's reminds Ren of where he is, and of who he's supposed to be. “What the fuck do you mean by that?” Snoke would have dashed Hux to the deck long before now, but after his first few days in power, Ren decided he wasn't going to be that kind of ruler. Snoke abused both Hux and Ren that way, and Ren is burning Snoke along with the rest of the past. Hux isn't privy to this decision, of course. He still lives obviously on edge, apparently expecting a blow at any moment. Ren hasn't said anything to change that.

Hux blinks rapidly, his strange translucent eyelashes fluttering, but he doesn't scuttle away. “You would never have allowed it, Supreme Leader,” he wheedles. 

“Are you accusing me of murder, General Hux?” Ren raises his voice enough for the others to hear. They freeze in place. 

“No, Supreme Leader. I'm thanking you.” Hux bows his head, and then he's gone, off to observe some nameless drone at some random workstation. Ren doesn't know what to do next, but it's not like uncertainty is a foreign state of being these days. He slams his other fist onto the arm of his chair, so hard he hears a crack in the Plastisteel. Then he settles for glowering until the ache in his head matches the one in his hands, and gets up to leave the command deck. No one speaks to him, of course. Hux doesn't even look his way. 

Ren misses Phasma. You can't maintain a physique like his via the Force alone, and she was the only one who would train with him. They never spoke, beyond the occasional grunt of greeting or in approval of a particularly good hit or impressive lift. Still, she was the closest thing Ren had to a friend. Now, he's forced to lift weights by himself, and fight against droids while trying not to remember his days as a youngling, flinging his little light saber in the direction of a flying ball. 

Today, the memories are strong. Ren takes them out on the droid, leaving it fizzling and groaning in the middle of the room. Then, without pausing to change, he stalks down the hall, to continue his attack on another dumb, lifeless creature. 

Although they're both in the middle of their off-shift, Ren never considered Hux might be in anything other than full uniform, possibly including his coat and hat. Instead, when Ren jabs at the button in front of Hux's quarters—he thinks, briefly, about ripping the door off its hinges, but that seems to suggest a loss of control, and Ren is in complete control—Hux answers in a short black robe, made of some silky material that reflects the light. Behind him, Ren glimpses a blue sofa, of all the ridiculous things. Did Snoke approve that? Is Ren going to now be expected to approve the furnishing choices of his underlings?

The thought makes Ren even more worked up than before. He may have sworn off Force violence, but regular violence is still on the table. He grabs Hux by the shoulders and slams him into his wall. Hux's head bounces off the Durasteel. Then, just for a moment, Ren sees it: the old Hux, sneering, overflowing with derision. It's gone nearly as soon as it arrives, replaced by the new, subservient Hux, but Ren saw it, and it's enough to snap him out of it. 

He releases Hux. Hux straightens his shoulders, and stands at attention, looking even stupider than usual in that little robe. “Supreme Leader...” He begins.

Ren cuts him off. While once, he would have wanted nothing more than to hear Hux suck up to him, it grew tiresome weeks ago. “You think you know what happened?”

“While I certainly wouldn't presume to...”

“He wanted me to kill the girl.” Ren hasn't told anyone that. He hasn't said anything about what happened, and of course no one has dared ask. “He expected me to do it.” There was no doubt in Snoke's mind, clearly, that Ren would follow through. His fatal mistake. The moment they stepped into that room, Ren knew only two of them would be leaving, and it was never going to be Snoke. 

“You couldn't?” Now, Hux looks interested. 

“I love her.” 

Hux reels back. Again, it's only the minutest of actions, but it catches Ren's attention. "Well...I...certainly...ahem...” In all the years they've known each other, this is the first time Ren's ever seen him at a loss for words. He should enjoy it more than he does.

“Not like that.” Ren has no patience for misunderstandings, especially not when he's baring his deepest secrets like this. “She's my sister. Half-sister.” 

Did Snoke know it? Presumably. The truth came to Ren the first time he and Rey were connected through the Force. She was Leia's mistake, the result of a dalliance with a pilot during one of her frequent separations from Han. Ben had been with Luke, so he hadn't seen his mother grow round, or give birth. She was too busy, she felt, to raise a baby on her own, and she had no qualms about having the girl adopted. She'd been raised by adoptive parents herself, and was very happy with them. Later, when the girl was an adult, Leia might try to find her, to tell her about her heritage and see if she was strong with the Force, but that was a long way off.

What happened after Rey left Leia is less clear. There was a shuttle crash, a kidnapping, a failed attempt at ransom. Ren was being honest when he told Rey she'd ended up with people who didn't care about her. He just wasn't telling the whole truth. He couldn't. She would accuse him of lying. That wouldn't help him win her to his side, to where she was meant to be. In the end, he'd lost her anyway. 

“I...I don't have siblings,” Hux says. He swallows. Ren can see his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. “I can't imagine what it would be like to gain a sister, then lose her so quickly.” 

“It's pretty fucking awful, thanks.” _And then I lost you, too._ In the immediate aftermath, Ren had to assert his authority. There was no choice. He hadn't counted on missing the way he and Hux used to snarl at each other, or the way that, even though they hated each other, they were still comrades. Now, Ren is alone. 

He turns away. There was no point in coming here, and no point in revealing his secrets to Hux. What does Ren expect him to do? 

“Ren,” Hux says. Ren doesn't turn to look. Instead, he feels a hand on his shoulder. It was never a common occurrence, but this is the first time Hux has lain a hand on him since Snoke's death. The first time anyone has. “I'm on your side.” Hux always seems like a cold man, but right now, his hand is warm, burning through Ren's light top. Ren's heartrate picks up again, but he's not enraged like before. It's something else, something he can't quite explain. Then, Hux adds, “Of course, Supreme Leader,” and just like that, whatever it was disappears. 

“Don't talk to me,” Ren snaps, and he stalks away, leaving Hux staring after him in his little black robe. 

***

Ren's first success post-Snoke, and post-Luke, comes on the backwater planet of Sarconia. Neither Rey nor Leia is there. Ren would have felt them. Still, they manage to eliminate a Thunian wart-hornet's nest of rebels, obliterating their little hideout and bringing a handful of people on board to torture. 

Ren had thought he was menacing when he wore his mask. He was, but that's nothing compared to the pure fear he evokes when his enemies can see his face. Looking into their terrified eyes, without any barrier between them, gives him a sensation of power bordering on elation. When one of the rebels breaks and gives them the co-ordinates of another, bigger, settlement nearby, joy surges forth as Ren stalks out of the room, leaving the Troopers to finish the man off. He's so happy that when he strides onto the command deck and Hux says, “We'll have them presently. Well done, Supreme Leader,” Ren actually smiles. 

It surprises Hux. That's obvious. Hux looks away, then back to Ren, and says, “At times like these, Phasma and I would often celebrate with a drink.” 

Ren doesn't know whether that's meant to be an invitation or merely an observation. In any case, he says, “I drink.” It's true, in the barest sense of the word. 

“Ah. Well, then. Perhaps you would care to join me at my desk? Sir?”

“All right,” Ren says. There's nothing else to do while they wait.

If Ren rejected the idea of an office as tedious and banal, Hux has, predictably, embraced the tedium and banality. There's a plain, featureless desk with a comm station, a window onto nothingness, a little 'fresher off to one side, behind a recessed door. Hux's personality, such as it is, has left no mark whatsoever. _But then_ , Ren thinks, _isn't that exactly Hux's personality?_

There's a bottle on the desk. Ren doesn't ask what it is. Hux pours two glasses, unmatched. He pushes the wineglass toward Ren and takes the black Plastisteel mug for himself. “To Phasma,” he says, raising his mug. Ren returns the salute and takes a too-large sip of something absolutely vile. He swallows hard, choking down the noxious substance with tears in his eyes. If Hux notices, he doesn't say. He's too busy knocking back his own drink like he was born to do it. 

“She was the only one of your Troopers worth a damn,” Ren says. At the same time, Hux begins, “Thank you,” and Ren snaps, “For what?”

“For telling me what really happened in Snoke's chambers, Supreme Leader.” 

Ren takes another drink. It's as disgusting as the first. “You don't need to grovel like that. The way you do.” 

Hux's lips thin to an almost-invisible line and once again, Ren catches glimpse of his old co-commander-cum-adversary. It's almost as big a relief as getting the Resistance pilot to give up those co-ordinates. “Everything I do is for the good of the Order,” Hux replies. “Nothing erodes morale like fractured leadership.”

Ren snorts. “Like it makes a difference.” 

This can go one of two ways. They both know it. Ren waits, on edge, until Hux meets his gaze and says, “They trust me more than they do you. Surely even you can see that.”

It hasn't gone this way for a long time. Ren restrains himself from hooting in excitement. Instead, he scoffs. “I'm sure you believe it.” It is true. Ren doesn't care. It doesn't matter if he's popular with the minions, as long as they obey him, and they do. They always did. 

Even now, Ren expects Hux to back off. Instead, he steps forward, his eyes locked on Ren's. Something sparks between them, the way it used to. Clipped and precise, enunciating every word the way only he can, Hux says, “If I'd been in the right place at the right time, I'd be sitting on that throne you deem beneath you.”

Ren barks a laugh, thrilled that the game is on again. “The right place at the right time? You think you ever had a chance of defeating Snoke? He could have killed you without lifting a finger.”

“I know.”

“Something I've been refraining from doing.” 

“I've noticed.” 

This is amazing. Ren feels like he did when he was fighting back-to-back with Rey, but it's different, too. There was always something different about Hux, something unique. Something that makes Ren feel alive in a way nothing else does, and something that's been missing since he killed Snoke.

Ren moves even closer, closing the narrow gap between them. Hux doesn't flinch, and he still doesn't lower his gaze.

“You are clearly in a position of strength, for now.” Hux sneers, like it's an insult rather than a concession. “But I have my strengths, too. I must warn you, Ren. Be careful. I...” 

Ren cuts him off with his mouth.

If asked, he couldn't explain his actions, other than to say this, like Snoke's death and finding out about Rey, feels as though it should have happened a long time ago. It doesn't matter, anyway. No one's going to ask. He's the fucking Supreme Leader, and Hux is right here with him, as it should be. He's the one who pulls Ren close, his fists gripping the material of Ren's shirt, dragging him over until the back of Hux's thighs hit his desk. It's Hux who reaches over and squirts some sort of lotion onto his hand before he reaches into Ren's pants. The slickness of that, combined with the coldness of Hux's hands and the smoothness of his skin, is devastating. Ren comes hard and probably too quickly, gasping like he's been shot into deep space.

Hux smirks, but that doesn't last long. Ren fumbles past the fussy First Order fasteners and does to Hux what he normally does to himself: a few rough, dry jerks of his hand, a twist at the end, and Hux comes, too, his flushed face pressed to Ren's shoulder. 

After a moment, Hux pushes Ren away, but he doesn't get dressed. Instead, he stands glassy-eyed, his cock hanging out of his uniform. It's a laughable sight. Ren doesn't laugh. He doesn't do anything. Neither of them do, until there's a sharp knock on the door and a voice says, “Supreme Leader? General Hux? So sorry to interrupt, but we're nearly there.” 

It takes Ren's brain a moment to catch up. Then, he remembers the Resistance base, a tangoo fruit just waiting to be squashed under his boot. “I'll be back.”

“I already am,” Hux replies at once, snippy and divine. _Thank fuck for that_ , Ren thinks, and he heads out to rain hell on those who are keeping his sister away from him.


End file.
